MAKING A DIFFERENCE

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MAKING A DIFFERENCE - Taking a step towards literacy
published: Wednesday | March 26, 2008

Amitabh Sharma, Features Coordinator

Malik Lawrence, a grade six student, had difficulty in keeping pace with his class and was struggling to read grade one books. Last year he decided to join a programme in his school to improve his reading skills.

"Everybody in my class could read," said Malik, a student of Rennock Lodge All-Age School in Mountain View in the Corporate Area. "I also wanted to read."

Leroy Smith, principal of the school, said "literacy has been a challenge and we have been trying to address this by bringing in new and innovative methods."

Smith, who calls the school a small nursery in the Mountain View community, said that, when he joined, only a handful of the students were able to read satisfactorily. He was keen to improve the standards among the students.

"If you don't know a word, you hit a barrier, the idea was to overcome this barrier," he said.

Around this time, then president of the Rotary Club of Kingston East and Port Royal, Bentley Jones was planning the calendar of events for Rennock Lodge. "We were toying with several ideas," Jones said. "We decided that the focus should be on education."

Ways to encourage

He added: "There was a dire need for intervention. Reading was a problem, we wanted to find out ways to help and encourage students to read."

The club partnered with Applied Scholastics and their model was introduced in July 2006 for Rennock Lodge School.

"We held workshops for the teachers," informed Jones, "the actual programme took off six months after the launch."

Annamarie Thomas, grade one teacher at the school who attended the workshop, said: "The workshop was to study the techniques how to help the children to learn by using phonics as the base."

The teachers attended a series of modules and taught the various techniques of the programme.

"The learning exercise was very extensive," said Thomas. "I had to attend workshops during the holidays."

Thomas uses the methodologies to teach the students: "Since most of the children were not able to read, we spend half an hour to 45 minutes a day with them."

The Rotary Club also arranged to get dictionaries and books.

"The students were encouraged to use dictionaries and read," Jones said.

Junelle McPherson, a shy first grader, spells her name with ease.

"I can also spell father, mother, grandmother," said the proud seven-year-old who loves to watch Dora the Explorer and wants to be a mathematics teacher.

Smith said the changes have been visible but they have had to overcome.

"It has been easy to work with lower grade students. It is a challenge with the upper grade students as they are rigid and do not want to be seen with lower grade students and learn," he said.

"Malik is an exception," said Thomas who noted that, a year down the line, the student has shown improvement.

"When he came he could not spell 'cake'. Now he has reached to the level of grade four," said Thomas. "This is a big step forward."

Dreams

A delighted Malik, who dreams of making it to the West Indies cricket team, said: "In a while I could read."

The students are assessed at several levels; grade one inventory, grade three diagnostic test and the grade four annual literacy assessment, by the Ministry of Education.

Students of Rennock Lodge have shown improvement all round. According to the figures, in 2007, 50.9 per cent of grade four had attained optimum level in the test,as opposed to nil in 2001.

The club can be contacted via email to Ruth C. Palmer, president, at ruth503@gmail.com.

amitabh.sharma@ gleanerjm.com'Making a difference' is an initiative to highlight the work of service clubs and social organisations in Jamaica which are transforming communities across the country. We invite organisations which are working towards a cause to participate in this endeavour. Contact: 922-3400 ext. 6377 or email: amitabh.sharma@ gleanerjm.com